Abnormal sperm worry for Taiwanese men

Doctors want more research to determine the extent of damage

By BBC science reporter Helen Sewell

Men from Taiwan who were exposed to contaminated cooking oil before they were born have lower sperm quality than normal.

A new research published in the medical journal The Lancet says more than 2,000 people consumed a batch of toxic oil in the late 1970s.

Men born to mothers who consumed the toxic oil produce sperm with a lower quality than normal

The chemical contaminants passed from pregnant women to their unborn children, and the full extent of the damage is only now being realised.

The first cases of poisoning in Taiwan were reported in 1979.

The oil contained toxic chemicals, PCBs, which had previously been used as part of a heating process in an oil production plant.

'Acne-like eruptions

A school for blind children told the local health authority that a strange disease was afflicting both staff and pupils.

People were developing acne-like eruptions on their skin.

Other cases soon followed, and victims became ill as their faces and limbs began to swell and infected spots spread extensively over their bodies.

More than 30 people died, including babies born to affected mothers.

The cause of the mysterious illness, which affected more than 2,000 people, was traced to a contaminated batch of rice oil, widely used for cooking.

Now, more than 20 years later scientists have discovered that men born to mothers who consumed the toxic oil produce sperm with a lower quality than normal.

In this new report, doctors explain how these men had more abnormal and slower sperm than those whose mothers had not eaten toxic oil.

PCBs are a common form of pollution worldwide, and the doctors say more work is needed to assess their impact on a general population.